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More than two years after the Every Student Succeeds Act passed, only a handful of states are considering taking advantage of the testing flexibility the law offers鈥攄espite long-standing calls by many state officials for a freer hand on assessments.

ESSA lets states take new approaches to measuring student learning. But it doesn鈥檛 appear likely that those new opportunities will make a deep national impact on assessment anytime soon.

The law invited up to seven states, or groups of states, to participate in an 鈥渋nnovative assessment鈥� pilot aimed at using performance tasks and other types of student work instead of states鈥� previous tests. But only Louisiana, New Hampshire, and Puerto Rico submitted applications by the April 2 deadline.

ESSA also says states can allow individual districts to drop their state鈥檚 high school exam and use a 鈥渘ationally recognized鈥� high school test such as the SAT or ACT instead.

But only three states have embraced that idea. North Dakota recently won federal permission to let districts substitute the ACT for the state high school test. Arizona is planning something similar. Oklahoma dumped its required end-of-course exams in high school and this spring is letting districts choose between the SAT and the ACT. But the Education Department has notified Oklahoma that it needs one main high school test鈥攏ot just a choice of two鈥攁nd has not yet approved its ESSA plan.

Local Choice on High School Tests

Georgia and Oregon are thinking about giving districts a choice. Florida considered it, too, but a report the state commissioned warned of potential problems, including a lack of alignment between the college-admissions exams and its own academic standards. If Florida is to move forward with that option, the legislature would have to act, and there are no such bills pending, said Cheryl Etters, a state department of education spokeswoman.

One California lawmaker has introduced legislation that would force the state to let districts have that choice. And a Colorado law requires the state to investigate the option. Georgia is awaiting the results of two studies it commissioned to see if the SAT and ACT fully cover its content standards and whether scores from those exams would be comparable to scores from Georgia鈥檚 end-of-course tests.

Allison Timberlake, Georgia鈥檚 assessment director, said the state wants to give districts 鈥渆very opportunity to choose assessments that best meet the needs of students and the communities.鈥� But it first needs to be sure that 鈥渘o student or district is disadvantaged or advantaged鈥� by the tests they use, she said.

If one test produces higher proficiency rates than another, for instance, that schism could translate into problems for some schools and students. Schools are held accountable for their proficiency rates, and high school tests in Georgia count for 20 percent of a student鈥檚 grade, Timberlake said.

ESSA says that states don鈥檛 have to give assessments in one end-of-year session; they can administer interim tests during the year and roll those results together into one summative score. No state appears to be seriously considering that option.

Pennsylvania decided against it, said state education department spokeswoman Casey Smith. Officials there worried that using interim tests to report a summative score would be more time-consuming and expensive than giving one exam at year鈥檚 end, and that it could undermine efforts to maximize instructional time.

The state decided to ease the assessment burden in other ways: by cutting testing time by 20 percent and by moving tests later in the year to carve out more teaching time, Smith said.

What ESSA Didn鈥檛 Change

The main framework of required standardized tests鈥攖he stuff many activists and educators hate the most鈥攊s unchanged in ESSA.

States still must give yearly math and English/language arts exams to all students in grades 3-8 and high school. During the run-up to the law鈥檚 passage, some federal lawmakers pushed for testing students only three times during their K-12 years, the same way science tests are handled, but that didn鈥檛 fly. Some also pushed unsuccessfully to adopt 鈥渕atrix sampling,鈥� a testing approach that produces national data by giving pieces of a test to a representative sample of students. But ESSA retained the requirement that states test 95 percent of all students.

A national backlash against standardized testing drove the debate about the testing flexibilities in ESSA. In a bid to reduce overall testing time, the new law also encourages states to audit their bevy of tests and eliminate unnecessary ones.

And it stepped up its welcome for something that was already permitted in federal law: It invited states to embrace the SAT or ACT as their statewide high school achievement tests. While most states seem reluctant to let individual districts make that choice, many are embracing it themselves, adopting a college-admissions exam as their statewide high school test. Twelve states use the SAT or ACT as their high school tests for accountability. That trend had been taking shape several years before ESSA was passed.

Experts who track state policy say there are many reasons states haven鈥檛 rushed to commit to ESSA鈥檚 testing flexibilities.

鈥淲e鈥檙e seeing states starting to look at these, but the operative word is 鈥榣ook,鈥� 鈥� said Jeremy Anderson, the president of the Education Commission of the States.

There are many new faces in state superintendent鈥檚 chairs since ESSA passed, and more than 30 states are now facing gubernatorial contests, Anderson said. He predicted more action on ESSA鈥檚 testing options once the dust settles on those leadership changes.

鈥淚 don鈥檛 think we鈥檒l see a sea change, like 40 states making big moves,鈥� Anderson said. 鈥淏ut I do think we鈥檒l see 10 or 12 making significant changes over the next couple of years.鈥�

Flexibility Comes With Burdens

ESSA鈥檚 testing flexibilities aren鈥檛 easy to adopt. Each one poses technical challenges, and that isn鈥檛 something many states relish right now, said Chris Domaleski, the associate director of the Center for Assessment, which provides technical assistance to states on assessment.

Psychometricians have warned, for instance, that combining interim assessments into one summative score might not produce valid results. States that let districts use a college-entrance exam instead of the statewide high school test must wrestle with how to factor those scores into their accountability systems. Not to mention the question of whether any new test fully reflects a state鈥檚 academic standards.

鈥淎ll of these flexibilities come with new burdens that are nontrivial,鈥� Domaleski said.

After the profound changes many states went through with the Common Core State Standards and related tests in the past seven years, most are placing a high priority on 鈥渕inimizing disruption鈥� and preserving longitudinal trends in their test scores, he said.

Kirsten Carr, who works with states on assessment and accountability issues as a senior program director at the Council of Chief State School Officers, said that a big chunk of states鈥� bandwidth in the past two years has been consumed by drafting and submitting their ESSA plans. With those out of the way, they鈥檙e just now turning to the nuances of the testing options in ESSA.

For the most part, Carr said, states are wrestling with the technical implications of those choices, such as how offering multiple tests at once will affect the validity and comparability of the results. States are now diving into 鈥渢he legwork鈥� needed to understand those issues, she said.

Carr rejected the idea that states鈥� slow response to ESSA鈥檚 testing flexibilities represents a lost opportunity to innovate, a view U.S. Secretary of Education Betsy DeVos has expressed publicly.

鈥淭hey鈥檙e being thoughtful and deliberate in their process, engaging with stakeholders to see what makes sense and what is required 鈥� as part of the statute,鈥� she said.